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The Art of Avoiding Prosecution

Donald Trump keeps floating the fantasy that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign will be derailed by her prosecution and possibly her imprisonment for using a private e-mail server while serving as Secretary of State. This fantasy is the current obsession on the Far Right, succeeding the one that dominated the first eight months or so of 2015—namely, President Obama’s impending impeachment. Hucksters generated millions of dollars selling bumper stickers, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and other memorabilia of the “liberation from the tyranny of Obama” that never materialized—not even at the level of a holograph.

Well, not surprisingly, it turns out that someone in the Trump organization may have far greater legal liabilities than Hillary Clinton has ever had. What follows are the opening paragraphs of an article written by Andrew Emett for Nation of Change:

“While Florida’s Attorney General was reviewing whether to investigate fraud allegations at Trump University, The Donald J. Trump Foundation illegally contributed $25,000 to a political committee supporting her reelection and failed to file the donation with the IRS. After the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) recently filed a complaint against the Trump Foundation, Trump’s campaign admitted to violating federal tax laws while placing the blame on a series of clerical errors.

“On August 25, 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Donald Trump, the Trump Entrepreneur Institute (formerly Trump University), and Trump University’s former president “for engaging in persistent fraudulent, illegal and deceptive conduct in connection with” the university’s operation. A few weeks later, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to prosecute Trump and his university for pulling a scam and ripping off students across several states.

“Three days later, the Trump Foundation donated $25,000 to And Justice for All, a pro-Bondi group supporting her 2014 reelection. Not only did Bondi decide not to investigate Trump, she also endorsed him for president last week.

“On Monday, CREW filed an IRS complaint against Trump Foundation for making an illegal political donation and failing to disclose the contribution to the IRS. Due to the fact that Trump Foundation is a 501(c)(3) private foundation, it is prohibited from contributing to political organizations. After making the illegal donation, Trump Foundation falsely claimed it did not donate $25,000 to And Justice for All, a section 527 political organization, on its tax return.”

And somewhat later in the article, Emett reports:

“According to Weisselberg, Trump’s accounting firm mistakenly listed the $25,000 political donation to a Kansas-based nonprofit with the same name. A spokeswoman for the Kansas group, which trains antiabortion activists, recently confirmed that it had also not received the money.

“Although Trump’s camp has confessed to making a series of mistakes, they refuse to admit that the presidential candidate illegally bribed a state attorney general capable of prosecuting him for fraud and purposely hid the $25,000 bribe from the IRS. Instead of arguing Trump’s innocence, his campaign is attempting to plead incompetence over corruption.”

The title of Emett’s article “Trump Accused of Illegally Bribing State Attorney General” includes a Trumpian redundancy and implicit oxymoron: that is, “illegally bribing” suggests that some bribes may be legal. And perhaps they are in the world as it exists inside Donald Trump’s head.

2 thoughts on “The Art of Avoiding Prosecution”

Huh- well at least they admit to mistakes. One small step for Trump-kind, one giant step for mediocrity.

I’ve learnt very recently there is indeed an art to avoiding prosecution. Just 8 days ago, a felony charge of stalking was dismissed. It was alleged my good faith efforts to protect my work from a plagiarist and to publicize egregious environmental health violations represented felony stalking. The charge in of itself also violated my 1st & 14th amendment rights. Behind all of this was one of the wealthiest universities in the good ole US of A.

We attempted to defend the case by issuing subpoenas for evidence & witnesses from this cash cow of higher learning. They refused to comply, instead wishing to bury their skeletons in the closet. The DA then immediately dismissed the felony count. So in a way, Trump is a brother to me, a partner in crime as it were.

I had to sell my home to afford three lawyers. It broke my heart. But that is better than 3 years in prison, I suppose.

One might say this is a tale of two universities- each as corrupt and immoral and fraudulent as the other.

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